The Electric Jaguar I-Pace Lives Up to the Hype

The Jaguar I-Pace is no upright SUVits slippery, with a 0.29 aerodynamic drag rating.
Jaguar Photo

By

Jim Motavalli

Oct. 8, 2018 12:03 p.m. ET

The Jaguar I-Pace is a big step forward for the company: it’s first electric car, and a very credible one at that, with a 4.5-second zero-to-60 time, 234 miles of range, and a top speed of 124 miles per hour. Tesla’s Model X has had the zero-emission performance SUV field to itself, but now (with the Jaguar and the Audi e-tron) it’s getting crowded.

I was able to spend a few days with the 394-horsepower I-Pace, in the middle-of-the-pack HSE trim (starting at $80,500). As tested, with such features as configurable ambient interior lighting ($250) and aluminum weave carbon fiber trim ($1,300), the car bottom-lined at $86,145. The entry-level SE starts at $75,850 and the exclusive First Edition $85,900.

According to Andrew Brudnicki, a senior account supervisor at Jaguar Land Rover, the first customer I-Paces will be delivered in November. “They’re still updating the software,” he says. My test vehicle was a pre-production car.

It would be very easy to live with the I-Pace as your only car. The range—made possible by a huge 90-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery—is more than enough for most people’s daily driving, and there’s plenty of storage space. In back there’s 25.3 cubic feet of luggage area, and an additional 0.95 cubic feet under the front hood.

Deep-sixing the internal-combustion engine and drivetrain also frees up space in the cabin, so there’s another 0.43 cubic feet in the center console. The tailgate is easy to open if your arms are full—just swing your foot under the back of the car.

The I-Pace is a driver’s car. The only thing you don’t get is the sound of a rip-roaring gasoline engine. But electric motors provide full torque (512 pound feet) from the moment your foot goes down. I’ve never driven a car that was so adept at passing lesser vehicles, all in near silence. It also handles exceptionally well in highway driving.

SUVs have been taking on some of the better characteristics of sedans, and the I-Pace sheds the bolt-upright styling of many off-roaders. The windshield is steeply raked, and the air flows to a vertical “Kamm” tail—using the best aerodynamic principles. Even the grille is curved inward, and channels air up through the hood scoop for better performance. The I-Pace manages a drag coefficient of 0.29, which is nearly in Toyota Prius territory.

Rear vision could be better—so the back-up camera is much appreciated. But the cabin (which accommodates five) is generally quite airy, and the heated leather seats—front and back—very comfortable, with good legroom. For cold weather areas, the steering wheel is heated, as are the washer jets and even the windshield, which melts ice and snow with embedded heating elements.

The Jaguar uses the science of torque vectoring to apply braking force to the appropriate wheels to aid cornering. Brake energy is also captured to recharge the battery through an enhanced regeneration system, and that enables virtual “one-pedal” driving. Essentially, the car slows down so much when the driver backs off the accelerator that it glides to a stop without touching the brake pedal. It’s an odd sensation at first, but it soon proves very useful—and brake pads and other components will last much longer.

Adaptive dynamics—a $700 option that was on our test car—is a useful feature, working in the background to adjust the driving mode depending on the road conditions. Most cars of this caliber have selectable drive modes, but depend on the driver to make choices—and for me that often means pushing the “comfort” button

Unlike many of today’s SUVs, the I-Pace is a capable off-roader. All-wheel drive is achieved via synchronous permanent magnet electric motors, one on each axle. I don’t have dirt roads in my suburban town, but I took the I-Pace through a two-foot-deep stream on a media drive in Portugal, and then had to basically repeat that feat in Connecticut during recent flooding. A highway underpass filled up with water, and the only way forward was through it. The car conquered the water obstacle with aplomb

This is a battery electric, so ease of charging is essential. I was able to plug into the public charger at our local library, and fairly quickly added 100 miles of range. In general, when plugged into a 240-volt Level II outlet, the I-Pace will take 10 hours to get to an 80% state of charge, so it’s best left overnight.

The I-Pace is getting a good start in life from Waymo, a self-driving technology company that’s a stand-alone subsidiary of Alphabet, which will put up to 20,000 of the vehicles in its self-driving fleets over the next few years. The first three were delivered to San Francisco in June. The company chose that city to launch a multi-stop Jaguar Electrifies Experience Oct. 1.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.